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Category Archives: Music @ja

New Boyish Video: “Crazy For You”

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Due to shifting work priorities and a general time crunch (plus, still gotta burn through the new Arrested Development guys), albums tend to get lost in the shuffle around here. We make time for stuff like May.e and (as you’ll see soon enough) Moscow Club…but lots fall through the crack. Like Tokyo indie-pop darlings Boyish, whose debut album Everything You Say came out on Dead Funny Records last month. It’s a predictably solid listen, showcasing the outfit’s twee chops, a nice summation of what they’ve been doing for the past year. It also costs about $20 (those other two albums I mentioned? Free online.) and I didn’t get my paycheck until last week. So here we are…I finally have a copy of the new Boyish album, and I can confirm…it’s good!

To remind you to go hunt it down, here’s the new video for “Crazy For You,” a song that’s been around a while but still sounds sweet to our ears. Enjoy it…and the found-footage video…now.

Slow Wonder: Ikebana’s “Rose,” “Kiss” And “Alone”

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It takes nearly two minutes for Japanese duo Ikebana’s “Rose” to really reach…somewhere. Before that, for all those seconds, the pair create a slowly unfolding iciness that sounds like it might never thaw out. Only when voices…unintelligible, virtually humming…enter into the scene do things start to warm. And even then, it still takes time. Eventually, though, those voices form words, one practically dripping down a glass window while the music glaciers on. Only the scrape of a guitar string disrupts the chill. It’s slow…but entirely engrossing, slightly mysterious but hiding some warmth.

Then comes “Kiss,” spending another two minutes frosted over. This time, though, Ikebana are audible, mostly because the only sound joining them is one muted guitar. “Kiss/I want…” the song goes, the pair spending 120 seconds begging for the interaction. Then the guitar picks up, and the intensity picks up…even if the lyrics are still pining for locked lips, ones that will cause the kisser “to never let me go.”

Oh and here’s one more song for you to stare into the void with and feel an intense longing. That’s what I’m doing!

Lazy-Day Insects: Spider Cloud

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Man, sometimes all you can do is say “no busy stuff today.” It’s really easy to forget the importance of just blowing the outside world off and taking it easy for a lazy Sunday or sleepy afternoon. I would like to think Osaka duo Spider Cloud agree with me – at least, I’m willing to make that assumption after listening to the handful of songs available on their SoundCloud. The pair create easy-going, in-no-rush, bare-bones music featuring just some guitar strums and basic percussion. Oh, and singing which often finds both members of the group overlapping, a pleasant effect that recalls Chinese indie-pop band The Marshmallow Kisses. Except for the sleeping-in crew. For all this “lazy” talk, it’s important to note that Spider Cloud make sure their songs have emotional impact. “Fallen Leaves” mesmerizes with slow-building instrumentation, yet it’s the late line “something is changing in my heart” that cuts through and sticks. “What Should We Do?” conceals more of a conflict beneath all the sunny sounds, while “Morning Light” is just plain sweet. Take a break and check ’em out.

New Ano(t)raks Compilation World Awake Featuring Buddy Girl And Mechanic, Ghostlight, Annie The Clumsy And More

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Initially, it looked like netlabel Ano(t)raks was going to define itself as a destination for indie-pop music. Which it still very much does – the bulk of the artists appearing on their compilation albums over the past few months certainly skew towards the twee. Yet with latest various-artists collection World Awake, the fledgling label has established themselves as the go-to source for new, lo-fi artists in Japan today. With this collection…and the not-as-good-in-quality Subterraneans collection…they show they are on top of the introducing you to groups you didn’t know existed before game.

World Awake – featuring fresh-as-heck art from Kai Takahashi, who can seemingly do everything and do it well – features a few familiar faces. Most prominently is Tokyo’s menacing Buddy Girl And Mechanic, responsible for one of 2013’s best albums and the clearest sign Ano(t)raks aren’t just a cutesy bunch of folks. That group’s “Fanaticalia” lurches forward on a melody seemingly borrowed from The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me,” except played in an unsettling fashion. It would feel welcome on Buddy Girl’s self-titled full length from earlier this year, which is high praise around these parts. The Fin., who have appeared on other Ano(t)raks comps, also show up with the bouncy melodrama of “Floating In The Air.” After them…these names are new to us. Annie The Clumsy leads the collection off with the charming “The Gold Crescent,” a muted affair recalling Maia Hirasawa (or the Fiery Furnaces) dwelling on simple observations that come around while walking a dog. Come To My Party make the most out of lo-fi recording on the twinkling “Paraffin Lover,” while Slow Beach throw a slight curve with “Surfin’ Today,” which sounds more like ragtime than surf music. We also dig the atmospheric cut from Ghostlight, which adds in little electronic touches. Know ’em or not, this compilation is packed with good stuff. Get it here, or listen below.

Seiho Likes Him Some Janet Jackson: “Someone To Call My Lover (Seiho Bootleg Mix)”

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Seiho loves R&B…catch him live, or just listen to any of the tracks he’s released in the past year and that becomes clear pretty fast. This is him putting that interest right into the spotlight. His remix of Janet Jackson’s “Someone To Call My Lover” easily could have been another Seiho track utilizing a vocal sample warped to the edges of the astral plane. It even has his ridiculously tight bass lines, and a general tightness that has come to define his work. But nope, he’s acknowledging Janet big time, and allowing more of her words from the original to come across (he could have sliced this even thinner). Great remix, and another reminder to get pumped for his next full-length out next month. Listen to it…and the original…below.